Letters: School speed cameras a ruse

So if the company truck gets ticketed, who pays? Traffic moves past the sign for a red-light camera on Middle Country Road near Boyle Road in Selden on Aug. 18, 2011. Photo Credit: Newsday / Thomas A. Ferrara

The idea that speed cameras near schools are about safety was further demolished by Newsday's April 23 story ["Eye on speed cameras"]. It said only drivers who exceed the speed limit by 10 mph or more would be ticketed.

If safety requires drivers to slow to 20 mph, why permit them to drive at 29 mph in a school zone? If safety requires drivers to travel at 20 mph, authorities should ticket drivers going 21 mph.

I still have not read of any child injuries from drivers speeding in a school zone.

Albert Savoy, Huntington

It appears that Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano has won permission to put cameras in school zones to fine drivers who exceed the speed limit ["125 speed cams for LI," News, May 1].

The county already has numerous red-light cameras that generate summonses. With the addition of these new cameras, do school employees, parents and students who drive realize that they are most likely to be caught speeding by the cameras, since they would drive by them the most?

Also, do Nassau and Suffolk police realize that these new cameras will further reduce the need for actual officers? They, like other professionals, are being phased out by automation. The county doesn't have to pay a salary, benefits or a pension to a camera!

Ronald Gendron, Smithtown

Editor's note: The writer is a retired SUNY police officer who worked for 27 years in Nassau County.

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